lauren and aston
forage for mushrooms
How did you get into mushrooms?
L: I grew up in North Vancouver right next to a forest and spent most of my childhood there, so I’ve always loved being in the woods but didn’t know anything about mushrooms. Then Aston and I met and they’re one of his passions, so it’s been really cool expanding my knowledge around that ecosystem and it’s kind of gamified my hikes which has been really fun.
A: I was in the forest behind my parents’ house in London, Ontario all the time - just all the time. I have four other siblings and I’m the oldest so I was always finding ways to just get away from everybody. There were lots of mushrooms, but there was the general fungiphobia or mycophobia thing like, they’re all poison so don’t touch them. But I noticed them there and was curious. I used to live in Victoria and I had a friend there, he was a garbage man! He was totally obsessed with wild mushrooms, so he got me into them. He gave me a bunch and we’d talk about them a lot. He was the kind of guy whose food for the week would be like a whole chicken - with the feathers still on and everything and he would make that into meals for the week. He lived in a little closet-sized apartment above Chinatown and was a really interesting character, everything he did was for some utilitarian purpose, he didn’t do anything just for fun.
He would bring me mushrooms and loaned me a book but was like, ‘I need it back after a week, though.’ I just went through it like mad and picked up whatever I could. In general, the rule of thumb is “when in doubt, throw it out.” Or some people say ‘when in doubt, give it a clout,’ like stomp on it haha. I guess that’s an English saying.
What’s your favourite shroom to eat?
A: Definitely for me is Maitake, Grifola frondosa is the Latin name. It’s almost onomatopoeic, the name looks like the mushroom to me, it’s a very fluffy looking thing. Maitake literally means “dancing mushroom” because it’s pretty rare to find them, so when you do find one you do a little dance.
Oh you do the dance!
A. Yeah! It’s my absolute favourite.
L. I’ve really been liking the Shaggy Mane lately, but I think out of all the ones we’ve had I like the Lobster mushrooms the best, they’re nice and firm. The Shaggy Mane can be a little slimy sometimes, depending on how big they are, but the flavour is really good. When we get a bunch of edible mushrooms, Aston will cook them up and we do these mushroom flights where we try each piece. All we do is cook them in butter so we can really taste the mushroom for what it is. We had some Enoki’s, and they tasted like Chinese food! They are a little bit slimy in the wild which is gross, but when you cook them it gave me that mixed beef and broccoli or mixed vegetables feeling, how it’s kind of viscous? And it tasted like that kind of classic Chinese food flavour that can be non-descript.
Is there a white whale of a mushroom that you haven’t found that you’d like to?
A: Yeah the Maitake, I’ve never found one in nature. The first time I ate one was at a fancy restaurant in BC but I’ve never actually found one, so that’s the one for me.
L: I want to find Morels. It sounds so cliche but I’ve just never seen one, they’re so camouflaged.
A: Apparently a good place to find them is Little Mountain Park, it’s just outside of the city. There’s a dog park and a sports area but then a little wooded spot with lots of Morels.
What makes a good forager?
A: Definitely attention to detail. Keepin’ your eyes peeled.
L: I think thirst for knowledge because you’re doing a lot of research and then yes, attention to detail. Being a good forager and being good at foraging are also two different things. There are rules around picking. I just finished reading the book ‘Braiding Sweetgrass,’ the author talks about these Indigenous foraging and gathering rules like, you never take the first one that you find, try not to take the last one that you find although sometimes you can’t control that, and never take more than you need. If you’re respectful with the way you pick them, more and more can keep coming back every year. I also think my eye for mushrooms comes from playing a lot of Final Fantasy games because it’s like, “did you check that well for gil or potions?” and usually there is a little secret treat in there. Finally, something to show for all of my gaming.
How can you not be scared of mushrooms/not die?
A: By learning about them. In general, I find that once you learn the poisonous ones and how they work and operate and what their habits are, it demystifies the whole thing and isn’t so scary after that. Same with anything, really. There’s a few rules of thumb as well, the best one is that little brown mushrooms can be really dangerous.
L: It’s hard to tell the edible ones from the non-edible ones. If we’re out looking and find ones that we don’t recognize, we’ll take them home to study and identify them. You can also do things like spore prints.
A: Yeah that can be a key feature, the colour of the spores. You cut off the cap and put it on something clean, tin foil is good. Then put a glass over it and leave it for a half-hour to an hour. You pull it off and it will leave this really beautiful print, you can see the gills and everything.
L: The Enoki for example, if the spore print is brown then it means they’re poisonous and if it’s white, they’re Enoki mushrooms and you can eat them
Do you have any mentors in mushrooms?
A: Yes, for me the biggest one is John Cage. He’s an American composer and paid his way through art school in New York by foraging around for mushrooms and selling them to restaurants. He’s got a lot to say about mushrooms and it’s all beautiful, he’s wonderful. He once got lost in Manitoba while foraging for mushrooms and there was a big search party.
In the 1950’s he appeared on an Italian trivia game show and he won the whole thing by identifying some notoriously difficult to identify mushrooms. Not only that, but provided all of the different names and where they like to grow and what they can be used for. All in Italian which is not his native language. He also has a very nice voice.
L: Did you say voice or legs?
A: Oh he has beautiful legs.
Do all trees potentially have mushrooms? Or do certain trees get them more?
L: I know birch trees get a lot of polypores.
A: I can’t think of any type of tree that doesn’t have some kind of relationship with mushrooms. Usually multiple, but there are some trees that are known to have particular relationships with mushrooms. Chicken of the Woods generally grow on elm trees.
L: If there’s a water source around, you might find mushrooms. You can find them at higher elevations but the closer to the ground water, the better.
A: There are Saprotrophic mushrooms that help to break down dead plant matter, like trees. Then there are mycorrhizal mushrooms that form a relationship with the root systems of plants and help bring water and nutrients to the tree in order to keep them going, it’s like they’re ranching the trees. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship. And then there’s a full-on parasitic fungus that just lives off of trees and other plants. Sometimes one mushroom can do both or two of those different types in its life cycle. They’re pretty complex.
What’s the best time of year to look for mushrooms?
L: The ground needs to be warm so spring is a good time for Morels, the Shaggy Mane we saw earlier, now is their season and Chicken of the Woods is summer. After a good rainfall is always good.
A: My mom was telling me that there was something in the national news about how Winnipeg is getting a ton of mushrooms this year.
L: Yeah, there’s Chicken of the Woods on Sherbrook! It had already been cut down but it was there, and huge.
Lauren, you’re a DJ, can you give us a three song playlist for foraging?
L: 1. ‘A Forest’ by The Cure 2. ‘Mushroom’ by Inner Wave and 3. ‘Little Bit of Rain’ by Karen Dalton.
L: This is a Fairy-ring mushroom!
A: 100%, it’s got this kind of colouration to it and a particular smell.
L: These ones are edible, although they don’t really smell edible.
A: If you get them when they’re young they’re some of the tastiest, they’re really delicate.
Aston, does your son like foraging for mushrooms?
A: He was actually so happy on his first day of school, we had to show up a little bit early to scope out a spot for him to eat lunch. We were walking around the schoolyard and he was like, “Hey!” and found all of these elm Oyster mushrooms right in the yard. It was a good little confidence boost on his first day.
L: He’s so sweet, he was like, “are you good at IDing mushrooms, Lauren?” and I was like “no, but I’m pretty good at spotting them.” He’s like “ok good, you’re good at spotting them, dad’s really good at IDing them and I’m really good at picking them.” I was like, “yeah, we’re a really good team.”
Oh wait a second, my real estate agent is calling me. (Answers phone call) Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Oh my god, I just bought a house! (Lots of cheers and hugs!)
What is the weirdest encounter, human or otherwise you’ve experienced while collecting mushrooms? And it might just be finding out you got a house but…
A: That is definitely up there! The other night was pretty special, I ate mushrooms straight from the ground with a total stranger.
L: He just walked up on us and was like, “did you guys lose your contact lenses?” We told him we’re looking at mushrooms so he came over and started talking to us about them. It was this mound of fresh brown mushrooms that are edible and Aston was telling him about them.
A: The guy just grabs one and tosses it back, and I’m like, you’re not really supposed to do that, but... now I’ve got to do it too.
L: I was like, ‘there’s literally garbage right next to it, calm down guys.’ The weirdest mushroom I’ve ever been a part of finding is that jelly roll mushroom. It was cold and slimy, it was just a brain.
A: Apparently you can eat them, it’s like a delicacy dessert mushroom in China. One really nice experience for me was with my son foraging for mushrooms. We had plastic bags full of them and were getting hungry so went to Vanxai’s Thai restaurant on St. Anne’s. We go in and the lady working there didn’t speak much English but was curious as to what we had in the bags so I showed her - she was fascinated by them. I explained with the help of her daughter what the ones we found were all about. The daughter explained that her mom is a mushroom hunter as well, had seen them before but didn’t know much about them, so I gave her a bunch to try.
She was so thrilled, made the motion for ‘wait a minute,’ went to the back and came out with some other mushroom she had foraged that I had never seen before, so we did a nice little trade. Now if I find way more than I can deal with I’ll drop by for a little visit. Mushroom buddies! It gives me a reason to have old lady friends, haha.
What’s your favourite season and why?
L: I like the fall because I grew up in North Vancouver so the weather is the closest to that. I don’t like it when it’s too hot or too cold, and the trees change colour. The trees are different, the air smells different and I like Halloween.
A: Yeah same.
L: Tell them about that lobster mushroom thing!
A: Yeah, that’s a weird one because the fungus itself is a parasite, and it takes over a couple of different species of mushrooms, one that I believe is poison. But a lobster mushroom takes it over and kind of zombifies itself, it turns it into itself like changes shape, changes colour. It becomes delicious and edible, when before it was not.
L: A lobster mushroom doesn’t grow by itself, it’s parasitic, so it takes over a host and then morphs the host into a lobster mushroom.
Isn’t there a mushroom that grows into an insect or something?
A: Yeah, Cordyceps, a fungus that goes into the brain of an insect and takes over, it makes them behave really strangely and eventually they die, and the fruiting body comes out of the mushroom in kind of spectacular formations.
L: The fruiting body is actually the mushroom.
What are magic mushrooms all about? We’ve never done them.
L & A: WHAT?!
Just kidding! What is your favourite mustard?
L: I actually do like dijon but my favourite is when it’s really grainy. Actually no, I’ll say Keen’s, I grew up with that.
A: My favourite kind of mustard is the classic Grey Poupon. It was never around as a kid, I learned about it from Wayne’s World, and I was like, ‘I want that stuff so bad.’ When I moved out on my own I went and bought some - I fricken love that shit. It makes you feel rich.
Interview by Katy Slimmon & Ali Vandale
Photography by Ali Vandale